about a boy

Joey today turned seven. I told him the 52nd rule of being seven was giving directions to the bookstore. He promptly obliged and I promptly dropped the 52nd rule in order to get to the bookstore.

Some moments of the boy that have rattled about in my head of late:

After watching Garfield the movie, he wondered aloud why Odie (the dog) didn't speak, while all the other dogs did. I suggested perhaps it was because Odie was meant to seem as the not very smart counterpart. "Oh no, mom, he's very smart. Every time music came on - WHAM - he started dancing right away." I tip my hat to the child who sees what I could not, who recognizes intelligence in all it's forms.

Recently, we acquired an old player piano, and Joey likes to sit on the futon while my fingers practice talking to each other. Yesterday he said, "Mom, can you play another song? You sound like a professional, but you're making me sad." I asked why, assuming it was an Isaiah moment, but he surprised me by saying that he was thinking of the brother & sister in the book we're reading, whose parents died in the first chapter. That he could empathize and name his sadness gives me hope that he will be able to chart the waters of life and of losing Isaiah when the time comes.

Lest I paint him en rose, he is also trying out slumped shoulders and whines, anger and boredom. Much as his father, they don't fit him all too well. He is also, like me, beginning to recognize his need for space, as he traverses the world of friends who enjoy his company. He practices magic tricks and has developed a love of the library and graphic novels. He chooses to continue on the unschooling path and perhaps to take up a martial art and he continues to bring us joy, as he has all the years of his life.